Turner to Take On the Masters at Tate

J.M.W. Turner's "Rome, from the Vatican" will be part of the Tate's fall show.

Published: May 7, 2009

Titian Joseph Mallord William Turner Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn Sir Peter Paul Rubens Canaletto John Constable Nicolas Poussin The Appendix: Mysteries of Roman Painting, Art Seizures, and the Last Newspaper

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LONDON— Fiercely competitive in his lifetime, J.M.W. Turner is now being put to the test in a new show at Tate Britain, the Guardian reports. "Turner and the Masters," pits the 19-century landscape artist's works alongside those of Old Masters and his contemporaries, whom he believed he was just as good as, if not better.

Roughly 100 artworks will be brought together for side-by-side comparisons, such as John Constable's Opening of Waterloo Bridge and Turner's Helvoetsluys, which were last seen together at the Royal Academy exhibition of 1832. Other artists in the show include Titian, Nicolas Poussin, Rubens, Canaletto, and Rembrandt.

The show, which will run September 23 through January 31, 2010, has been six years in the making, because of all the planning and borrowing involved. It will travel to Paris's Grand Palais and Madrid's Prado afterwards.

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David Solkin, professor of the social history of art at the Courtauld Institute and the show's conceiver, said, "The most exciting thing for me is that I have no idea what I'm going to learn from it." Hopefully at least that Turner can hold his own.

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